Throughout the second day of 2024’s first exploration of Son Doong Cave chef Hong Quang and his two assistants have been getting dinner prepared at 6 p.m. in Sinkhole 1. The tour group had returned to camp from a hike an hour earlier.
The dinner featured grilled hen, stir-fried beef with bell peppers, boiled pork, tofu simmered in tomato sauce, french fries, candy potato salad, and winter melon soup, in addition to an array of different aspect dishes and accompaniments. Tea and low have been additionally served.
The vacationers who ate it praised the meals, designed for about 18 to twenty individuals, “above and past” in comparison with home-cooked meals, and “spectacular” in comparison with typical trekking tour fare.
The Son Doong tour features a complete of 10 predominant meals, in addition to evening snacks like grilled corn, potatoes and peanuts.
Quang, 48, from Quang Binh which is house to Son Doong, has served because the tour chef for 7 years. He begins his day at 5 a.m., making breakfast earlier than embarking on the day’s journey with the group. He normally heads again to the camp early to prepare dinner dinner, then stays busy with cleansing and making ready components for the subsequent day till round 10 p.m.
Dinner is a spotlight, that includes the identical components as different dinners however ready in numerous methods. As Quang explains, “If we put together stir-fried beef someday, the subsequent day it is likely to be grilled beef rolled in betel leaves.”
Whereas dinner stands out for its “fanciness,” breakfast and lunch are simply as satisfying. They embody quite a lot of choices like beef banh mi, fried rice, prompt noodles, rice paper rolls with pork, crepes, and sandwiches.
To cater to the various group, together with Asians, Europeans, and Individuals, meals is ready in numerous types to fulfill numerous preferences and dietary necessities.
Quang takes cost of planning the menu earlier than every tour and personally handles ingredient preparation. Meals introduced alongside is refrigerated to keep up freshness for the primary two nights of the journey. Provides for the third evening are introduced from outdoors the cave. They’re introduced over “the Nice Wall of Vietnam,” which is a big flowstone wall on the opposite aspect of the cave.
“Fish is not included within the tour’s menu as a consequence of preservation challenges and the chance of bones,” Quang stated.
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Hong Quang prepares dinner on the camp throughout a Son Doong tour in January 2024. Picture by VnExpress/Linh Huong |
Son Doong Cave lies inside Phong Nha Ke Bang Nationwide Park in central Vietnam’s Quang Binh Province. It was declared the world’s largest pure limestone collapse 2009. It was formed over 2-5 million years in the past by river water flowing by way of buried limestone, forming an enormous underground tunnel beneath the mountains. Son Doong is about 150 meters large, over 200 meters tall, and nearly 10 kilometers lengthy.
About 1,000 to 1,200 guests are allowed yearly from January to August, serving to to keep up the cave’s ecosystem responsibly.
Every Son Doong tour normally has about 10 visitors and employs practically 30 workers members. This contains 20 porters carrying baggage, 5 security assistants, a tour information, a cave skilled, two cooks, and a ranger. All workers are locals skilled in security and rescue procedures. They transport 600 kilograms of apparatus and provides, together with waste, into and out of the cave, they usually clear the campsites upon departure to go away them as they have been discovered.
The cooks not solely want cooking expertise but in addition must be wholesome as they journey lengthy distances and carry greater than 10 kilograms of baggage.
For the meals, porters want to hold a 20-kilogram fuel tank, a range, pots, pans, bowls, utensils, and different objects obligatory for cooking. After their daytime work, they help within the kitchen, permitting dinner to be ready rapidly for the tour group, guides, and assist workers. Normally, the assist staff eats first with a easy meal, whereas visitors take pleasure in a extra elaborate one later.
Hoang Anh, a member of a latest Son Doong tour, talked about that he completed all his meals at every meal and even helped others end theirs.
“The cave meals are tasty,” he stated. “We cleared our plates, which made the chef joyful and motivated.”
Nguyen Chau A, Common Director of Oxalis Journey and Oxalis Vacation, the unique supplier of Son Doong excursions, emphasised the corporate’s dedication to making ready meals for visitors.
Upon reserving a tour, visitors are requested about their consuming preferences as a result of there aren’t any eating places close by, and no further meals might be purchased.
As a result of these sensible wants, the corporate hires expert cooks and assistants.
“Our cooks and assistants from Phong Nha City and Tan Hoa Village have spent months cooking within the forest, to allow them to prepare dinner properly,” he stated.
He added that when visitors benefit from the meals and provides compliments, “the chef will get excited and tries to make the meals even higher.”
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A dinner arrange at a camp throughout a Son Doong tour in January 2024. Picture by VnExpress/Linh Huong |
Every Son Doong tour normally has about 10 visitors and employs practically 30 workers members. This contains 20 porters carrying baggage, 5 security assistants, a tour information, a cave skilled, 2 cooks, and a ranger. All workers are locals skilled in security and rescue procedures. They transport 600 kilograms of apparatus and provides, together with waste, into and out of the cave, they usually clear the campsites upon departure to go away them as they have been discovered.
The tour operates in a distant space of the nationwide park, removed from medical or emergency assist, however a satellite tv for pc telephone is accessible for emergencies, with helicopter assist if wanted.